Cyril Stevenson, publisher of the Nassau Herald, held nothing back when pen and ink were in hand. Neither did Tribune publisher, Eitenne Dupuch. When they crossed swords on the print battlefield, casualties were always expected.
The creation of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Party in the 1950s, set off a firestorm in the Bahamian political sphere. It was audacious and unprecedented. Their foremost mandate, was to challenge the stranglehold the Bay Street Boys, the political hegemony, had on the Bahamas. At first they were not taken seriously, but that soon changed.
The 1956 General Elections changed the perception of the Party. The PLP won six seats out of twenty-nine contested. They won first and second places in three constituencies, New Providence West, New Providence South and Andros & Berry Islands.
Cyril St. John Stevenson, one of the founding PLP Party members, sat in the House of Assembly for Andros & Berry Islands (senior member). He was also Editor of his own newspaper, The Nassau Herald.
Stevenson’s political and editorial nemesis was Tribune Publisher and Editor, Etienne Dupuch.
Mr. Dupuch was also the sole member of his own political party, the Bahamas Democrat Labour Party. Dupuch sat in the House of Assembly as the representative for Crooked Island, Long Cays and Acklins.
When Cyril Stevenson began publishing in 1958, under the Nassau Herald brand, almost from the outset, a war of words began between Stevenson who represented the PLP and Etienne Dupuch.
In the Saturday, May 9th, 1959 edition of the Nassau Herald, Stevenson unleashed a scathing editorial entitled ” Your Sun Has Set.” It was directed at one person only, Etienne Dupuch.
Stevenson concludes the editorial with a final taunt at Dupuch.
Stevenson writes a strange Obituary to SOCIAL DECENCY which appears to have died in the Bahamas on 27th April 1959.
